


a study in human nature

by nishiki



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, French Backstreet Boys by LyoAquila, M/M, badboy!Malik, nerd!Altair, shy!Altair
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-25
Updated: 2017-01-30
Packaged: 2018-09-02 03:03:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8649163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nishiki/pseuds/nishiki
Summary: ----- On Hiatus ------Altair just began his new life at college. Sadly for him, not only is he incredibly shy, nerdy and socially awkward, he managed to get himself a new nemesis right away. His name: Malik Al-Sayf, certified bad boy and all around douchebag. From the moment Altair bumped into Malik, it seemed that Malik only wished to destroy him and make him the most uncomfortable at school. But all of this is about to take a quite different turn, after an incident at a party.





	1. Prolog

It was the most terrifying moment in his entire life as he got off the bus with nothing more than a large duffel bag in his hand. The bag itself was nothing extraordinary, really. It was plain black, brand new, with two handles to hold and one shoulder strap, which he rarely used because of his back pain. Though the bag was nothing special, it was large enough to contain his entire life, as it seemed. In it he had all the clothes he owned, his various medicines and his most precious items that he had guarded and protected for the entirety of his eighteen-year-old life like an especially greedy and feisty dragon sitting on top of a mountain of gold, not willing to even spare a single coin to a beggar. He felt tiny in comparison to the large gate he stood in front of.

The gate itself was made of solid iron, black and stunningly crafted at the top with beautiful filigree ornaments woven into another. To each side, brick stone columns held the iron gate in place and each of them wore a white stone plate with an insignia. The left column wore a majestic eagle embraced by a laurel wreath, under it there was a name, Samuel Johnston, engraved in the stone and there under an inscription in Latin, that he could not read. The other plaque held a complicated pattern in the form of a coat of arms on which three little books spelled out the word _Veritas_ , each opened book containing two of the letters on their pages. The plaque around the coat of arms was highly decorated, but the twigs of a tree that rose on the other side of the gate made it impossible to see the rest of the plaque above the coat of arms. Underneath it, the words _Sigillum Academiae Harvardianae in Nov Ang_ were carved into the stone. The sigil of the University of Harvard.

He made it, truly.

And yet he found himself hesitating to step through the wide open gate and enter his new life. What would await him on the other side? What possibilities might this place hold for him of all people? Was he ready to step through this gate yet, or should he better turn around and go look for a rock big enough so he could hide under it?

There was a soft little nudge against his back and out of instinct, he pulled the left strap of his heavy backpack tighter, while the weight of the books he was carrying around was slowly dragging him down and making his back pain all the more worse. He held his whole life in his hands and yet he was terrified. Maybe this was normal – at least he reckoned that other people might say this.

»Go on.« The friendly sounding voice from a man coming from behind him, gently coaxed him to move and yet his feet were heavy as if he would be wearing shoes made of cement. It was hard for him to move forward, but he did as he was nudged again. »You have nothing to fear. Go on.« The voice sounded again, this time with a little, lighthearted chuckle. Shortly he threw a glance over his right shoulder to look the man behind him straight in the face, but quickly lowered his eyes again to the ground and nodded.

Ezio had it easy talking like this. Ezio knew no fear. And yet, what he hated the most about his old life was his awkwardness and his general fear of life. Wasn't it about time to shake these fears off of him now that he was an adult and entering his life as a student? He straightened his back and finally moved forward, but faltered immediately as he noticed how his cousin did not follow.

As he turned around to look at Ezio again, the tall Italian shrugged his shoulders with a small grin. Apparently, he did not need to talk so Ezio would understand his unspoken question. »I'm not allowed through this gate. Only when I graduate I am allowed to go through it again. I’ll meet you on the other side in just a minute, eaglet.«

He nodded again before he braced himself as if he was about to step through the gates of hell. Altaїr had always thought he would feel different, that the world might feel different even, when he would step through the gates of his favored university, but, as he reached the other side, he was still the same old Altaїr and the world was still the same old, unfriendly, cold place he was used to. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to LyoAquila who always supports me so lovingly <3 I hope I do your babies justice, even though they did not get much screen time in this chapter. They will get more screen time in the next chapters for sure!

As he wiped at the fogged glass of the mirror in front of him to have a glimpse at his own face and looked behind his brown eyes and his slightly flushed skin, he was not able to find anything in his reflection to be proud of, which was odd because he knew that he had all the right reasons to be proud of himself and of his achievements.

He had been accepted into Harvard University to study architecture and photography as it had been his father's dream for him all his life. He had finished high school as the best of his year and his headmaster had even asked him to give a speech at the graduation ceremony as was the custom at nearly every school in this country. Needless to say that Altaїr had declined the offer, simply because of the fact that he would not have been able to deliver a speech in front of so many people without stuttering and utterly failing anyway. He had been scared enough all his life when he had been forced to talk in front of his class already! Talking in front of the entire school and the total strangers that were family and friends of his fellow students would have most certainly been his death in an instant. And yet, despite all his shortcomings on a more personal level, he had even managed to get a scholarship for Harvard that had nothing to do with sports. Yes, he could be proud of himself and his achievements - even of the fact that he was still standing and had not been scared off by the other students by now. But he was not. And the reason why he was not at all proud of himself but rather loathed his own reflection just as much as every new day on which he needed to get out of his bed, had nothing to do with his academic achievements - or the lack thereof.

The real reason for the disappointment he experienced in himself on a daily basis now, had nothing to do with his studies or that he would have failed in anything he had done just yet. It was a person who was responsible for this feeling of utter disappointment and a part of him regretted to have met this very human being in the first place. It would have been completely avoidable, though. If he had just watched his steps and not got lost on his way to a lecture in the endless maze of hallways, he would not have stumbled straight into that dude for certain and thus he would have never drawn any kind of attention from this man. After all, who in their right mind would grant someone like  _ him  _ any kind of attention whatsoever anyway? Usually, people did not even look twice at him for crying out loud!

And really, as he stared at himself in the mirror, there was nothing interesting about him anyway, no reason why anyone would look at him. He was of average height at best, even though his distant cousin Connor towered over him with 6’1 feet. He would not say that he was short either. He stood at 5’7 feet -  _ if and when _ he decided to straighten his back and raise his shoulders. And like his height, the rest of him too was almost ridiculously average and not noteworthy. His hair was of a mouse brown color, his eyes of a dull brown, and his skin just dark enough to show that he was not native to this country, but light enough to let him stand out and make him look odd amongst his close relatives. To compensate all this amount of absolute averageness he not even had a nice body to show off. His arms were pretty frail and thin, almost like toothpicks. Well, oversized toothpicks, perhaps. To him, it was almost a miracle that his thin legs even managed to support his weight, but since he was quite a lightweight anyway there really was nothing to support. He was thin - not in a good way and not in a concerning way either. There was not a tiny bit of muscle on his body that could go through as manly even by the stretch of the imagination. He was just thin and awkward and all in all, he looked more like a living, breathing, walking beanpole.

So, now that he had once again recognized how utterly unattractive he was for the rest of the world, he decided to put on his glasses, not just to complete the look, but to see properly. If his appearance wouldn't be enough already, he was as blind as a bat too.

This made it all the more miraculous how a guy like Malik Al-Sayf had managed to find at least enough interest in his person to speak to him, not to mention the rest that had happened afterward. It was him Altaїr had stumbled straight into in his first week in college, and Altaїr still remembered very vividly how he had stuttered his apologies only to be mocked by Malik's friends. Malik himself had not mocked him, only smirked with one eyebrow raised ridiculously high at the freshman. Back that day, Altaїr had not yet known who the guy was and it had taken him a few weeks to find out his name. Surely, he could have all but forgotten about the incident instead of wailing in his embarrassment, but since he was extremely qualified to do the latter, he had chosen this option instead.

Malik Al-Sayf was, from the moment Altaїr had first met him, exactly his type. One might even say he would be exactly the kind of guy Altaїr would jerk off to in the middle of the night hidden underneath his blanket so no one would witness his shame. Well, he guessed, that was only one of the many cons of having to share a room in the dorm in college. No matter how cool or nice his roommate was, no one, absolutely not a single person in the world, would feel comfortable hearing or seeing their roommate jerk off - especially not when said roommate was the brother of the object of Altaїr’s desire.

Altaїr had decided quite early in his life, that he was doomed and every decision he had made in his life since had only proven to him that he was indeed correct with this assumption.

Sadly, Malik Al-Sayf was not only extremely good looking and intelligent, he was also exactly that rough kind of character to which Altaїr had always been drawn to. Since he had discovered his desire for men, it had always been the  _ bad boys _ he had found himself enthralled by, even though he had always felt like this was something only women could experience like this. In High School, he would watch his female classmates swoon over the assholes of the football team - but pretty soon Altaїr had noticed that his fantasies too orbited around a rough guy shoving him into a set of lockers and ravaging him like a beast until-

As the door to the showers swung open, Altaїr almost fainted and sunk to the floor in shock and surprise at once. It was time to leave, he decided as he noticed the funny look he was shot from Arno, one of their many exchange students from France. It was odd seeing Arno by himself, for he was usually always accompanied by at least one of his three French comrades, which already gained the group a few mocking nicknames, like  _ French Backstreet Boys _ or  _ The Four Musketeers _ . With a hasty »Good morning!« in Arno’s general direction and his cheeks flushed a bright pink, Altaїr finally stormed onto the hallway. Arno’s bewildered »Bonjour!« hollowly echoed after him before the door to the showers could fall shut. His room was not too far off and so a sprint to his door clothed just in his towel with his stuff under his arm seemed manageable to him. Well, of course, he did not sprint. He never sprinted. It was not good for his heart … and his asthma. Plus, he had two left feet and would probably break a few bones if he would try.

Needless to say that he had never been a part of any sports team in the history of sports. He had been a member of the debating club, even though he hated talking in front of strangers, and the chess club in his previous school, but boy howdy! He had been a beast at the chessboard!

As he reached his door close to the end of the hallway and turned the cold braze knob to enter, he found the door locked and loud music was blaring from inside. It seemed, as other guys were passing him by, that whoever was in charge of the human race and its creation found great fun in tormenting him. Of course, he tried banging on the door to his room, but he doubted that Kadar would hear him over his crappy rap music, which he only listened to for make-believe. Altaїr very well knew that Kadar's playlist on his iPod looked a little different than what the guy was trying to portray to his peers. But he guessed with a brother as Kadar's, he would try his best to look cool too. Needless to say that Kadar would never even slightly manage to follow in Malik’s footsteps and that he did not even need to anyway.

Kadar and Malik Al-Sayf. Two Syrian brothers, born and raised in this country, both intelligent as fuck, but while one of them was a pretty chill guy, the other, well, was a douchebag. A douchebag with a nice ass.

And this, however cliché it might be, was his real problem since he had first laid eyes upon Malik Al-Sayf’s devilishly handsome face. He should have known from the smirk Malik had shown him after he had run into him, that this had not just been a reaction to Altaїr's stupidity and clumsiness, maybe a sign that the man found him cute, but a sign that Malik had found a new victim to play with like a cat would play with a mouse until it died. Altaїr had always felt as though the mouse might be his spirit animal, but never as much as he did since all of this had started.

At first, it had started like the dribbling of rain, soft against the windows on a cozy Sunday afternoon - but soon it had developed into a full-fledged thunderstorm and said storm seemed to have unloaded on Altaїr only two weeks ago on that horrendous party that would forever be ingrained not only in his mind but also in the history books of this very time period as the disaster and human catastrophe that it was.

»Kadar!« He tried yelling this time because he would probably break his fingers if he would further try knocking and Ezio had once told him that yelling always helped, but he immediately lowered his voice again as he was rewarded with funny looks from the other guys on the hallway. It was moments like this when he just wanted to die, struck down by the agony that was this enormous sense of embarrassment that he tended to feel when he was all alone out in the open with no one he could hide behind and no hole he could crawl into.

It was not as if he was a coward, he just was not comfortable being the center of attention as he was now and usually he did not even dare to speak to others around on campus if he could avoid doing so. He was here for a while now, six months, to be more precise. The winter break had just ended and he still hardly knew anyone except for his roommate Kadar and his cousins. Well, he knew Arno and his three very french buddies, Fin, Corbin, and Ander, but that did not really count since everyone knew Arno and the rest of his baguette-wielding squad. Still, it was embarrassing that no one ever seemed to notice him and that no one knew his name at least. If anything the others would refer to him as  _ that-Syrian-kid  _ or  _ that-weird-guy.  _ He was used to nicknames like these of course after eighteen long years of being who he, sadly, was forced to be. He still found himself wondering why Allah had decided to make him so weird in the first place. Maybe he had known what would become of him in the future and decided to make him as weird as possible without turning him into a platypus instead as punishment from the start. Then again, if he had made him as he was now, then why punishing him anyway? A part of him wondered how much worse it would have been to be born as a platypus.

With a sigh, he gave up and leaned his back against the door. Opposite his and Kadar's room was another. To both sides of the hallway were doors leading to the rooms of the students interrupted only by the showers and the toilets in the middle of the hallway. It was not as if he really believed in God, no matter the name or form that might differ from religion to religion. He was not religious, to be honest, but he guessed that certain things just managed to latch onto a person while growing up. Truth was, that he had grown up in quite the religious and strict household. A time he would much rather forget.

»I do not believe that this is the appropriate choice of clothing for this time of year, the occasion or the surroundings.« Connor. For the first time this day, Altaїr felt as though he was finally granted a little mercy, a fact that told him that this day would become one of the worst of his life, clearly. Connor Kenway was the younger of his two distant cousins with the older one being the Italian Ezio Auditore, only separated from Connor by one year. He had never quite understood how the three of them were related, even though he was sure that there was a very plausible explanation, but to him, this was not important anyway. He had grown up not having much of a family and so he had latched onto every bit of family he had found growing up.

While his cousin Ezio was a more playful young man, Connor was quite serious most of the time. His physique alone often enough sufficed to intimidate others and because of that he was one of Altaїr's greatest assets here in college for no one ever dared to bully him with Connor around. _The big guy,_ as Connor was lovingly called by his friends and Altaїr, was like a human shield to him most of the time and though he tried not to exploit Connor for exactly that reason, he tried to stay close usually. Connor did not seem to mind and he surely was aware that his baby cousin tried to hide behind him from time to time.

»It's not my fault.« Altaїr immediately clarified. »Kadar has locked himself in again and he won’t hear me over his music.« He tried his best to not sound whiny as he spoke, though.

Connor just sighed at this and instead of knocking at the door himself as Altaїr would have expected him to, he flung his left arm around Altaїr's shoulders and led him away from the door and down the hall. Usually, it was not at all like Connor to shy away from a battle even though it would just be with some stupid dorm door. He probably had a short night. »Come on, eaglet. You’ll get something to wear from me then.«

Wearing Connor's clothes was like wearing a tent. His clothes were entirely too large for Altaїr, but, polite as he was, Altaїr did not dare to say anything about it as he later glanced at the full-length mirror in Connor's dorm room. Back at him stared a young man with light brown hair who looked as though he might have shrunken in a washing machine accident and did not fit his own clothes now any longer. He felt miserable just watching at his own reflexion - which was not all that new. And yet he hardly had a choice but to walk around like this until he would be able to go back into his own dorm room.

He sometimes envied Connor greatly, for his cousin at least had his own room and did not need to share with someone. That, of course, was not just by chance. Haytham Kenway was a man weary of his son’s life’s choices. He was not a bad father by any stretch of the word. He was just very strict and he did not like that his only son had decided that he wanted to become a teacher instead of taking over the family company one day as Haytham had meant for him to do. And yet he had arranged that Connor at least got the best accommodations here on campus - much to his son’s utter dismay because unlike Ezio, Connor had never been comfortable in showing off his wealth to the world. And understandably so, after all, Connor had seen what bad things could come with great wealth and money.

Needless to say, that Altaїr was the butt of jokes even more so than usually on this particular day which in fact was just as ordinary as any other day since he started university. It was only six months since he had started University. Six months that had almost flown by in the blink of an eye. His days had been busy with studying for his courses, writing papers for his classes and trying to survive his roommate's presence. But even though the time had gone by so quickly, to Altaїr it seemed that nothing had really happened in those six months. His life had not changed all that much from the life he had lived during high school, only the set dressing around him had grown larger and bigger and more and more confusing.

Sure, he had never been much of a people's person. He was as introverted as anyone could possibly be, unlike his cousins. He was shy and felt utterly uncomfortable in the presence of really anyone who was not Ezio or Connor. He had not made many new friends since his new life in Massachusetts had started and, of course, he could only blame himself for that too. University was not like High School. Sure, there were distinct groups all over the campus, but it was not as badly as it had been in High School, or as he had experienced it. Even people he would have considered to be the popular kids in school had come over to him in his first few weeks to try and talk to him, popular kids like Arno and his friends, for example. And yet he had caused every single one of those people to lose interest in him - which was not at all surprising considering that he had as much personality and charisma as a slice of dry toast.

That was, of course, something that his cousin Ezio was still determined to change about him. Bless his face, he thought. Ezio was a saint, but sadly also very stubborn and inattentive from time to time. Altaїr did not like to draw attention, unlike Ezio and if he would finally agree to his invitation to go on a shopping spree with him, Ezio would do exactly that: draw attention to his younger cousin.

Like any other day, this day too had started - after his little bathroom adventure and the resulting distress he had experienced by being almost naked in the hallway of his dorm - with a scarce little breakfast in the cafeteria, together with Connor. While he had listened to his giant of a cousin rambling on and on about his subjects and the problems he was facing during his studies and his part time job, Altaїr had munched on some undefined sandwich, not sure if he was eating tuna or salami, while he had not been able to avoid noticing how much Connor had not wanted to talk about his familiar situation with him at all - which was not new at all. And since Altaїr knew that Connor had a hard time dealing with his father, Altaїr had not asked him either. Connor was usually good in dealing with his problems alone. He was an Aries, as one of his classmates, a girl by the name of Rebecca - Becks for short. Not Becky! Never Becky! - had helpfully told him on one day as they had been talking about an assignment they had done together. He had no clue what this was supposed to mean, but he thought that she probably knew what she was talking about. Perhaps she was the closest thing he had to a friend on this campus, except for his cousins. Ezio was never shy to remind him that they would not be here forever to help him, though. He probably should at least try to make friends.

After their shared breakfast, they had gone their separate ways, with Connor wandering off to make it to his first class of the day in time and Altaїr wandering off to his own class. He was studying photography and architecture. Two very boring, yet fascinating subjects as he was convinced to have chosen, despite the things his various family members had told him already. The only people in his family who seemed to support him in this decision, were Connor and Ezio and that was probably enough, he guessed.

It was around noon as he saw Connor again. They sometimes liked to meet at the park in the center of the University campus, but the New Year had hit them hard with snow and a lingering coldness all over. Most of the other students in his dorm had left between the semesters to visit their families over the holiday break, he, however had stayed at the dorm, envying Ezio for being able to visit Italy during the break and enjoying a bit of his home country. He had gone back to Florence for the time to visit his extended family and although he had invited Altaїr to accompany him, Altaїr had declined his offer, as he had with Connor, as Connor had invited him to go to London to his grandfather Edward where the entire Kenway family would gather. It was not so much that he wouldn't have been thrilled to travel and see a bit of the world, as he had never been able to before, but it was more that he did not feel as if he would belong. Experience had shown him, that the feeling of not belonging, was harder to accept than the loneliness of a silent and abandoned dormitory.

»Grandpa has asked me loads about you on Christmas.« Connor interrupted his thoughts as he sat down with two steaming hot mugs, one filled with coffee black as ink, the other with hot chocolate in his hands at the table that Altaїr had conquered for them in the Starbucks near campus. They liked to frequent this very coffee shop every now and again, when it was too cold to linger around at the park and did not want to idly sit in one of their dorm rooms. He was done with classes for today but had to do a little extra work anyway in the photo lab later that day. The new semester had just started and though his marks of the winter semester had not been bad at all, he was determined to do as much as he possibly could to achieve much better grades this semester. Studying seemed to be the only thing he was really good at. Which was kind of sad, actually.

»Mhm?« Altaїr produced as he gently nudged up his glasses a bit before he grabbed the hot chocolate and took a careful sip only to burn his tongue on the hot liquid immediately.

»He asked why you didn't want to come. He wanted to know why you would prefer to stay alone in the dorm and if you weren't frightened at all.« Connor continued as he closed his giant paws around his own mug. »You know because of all the ghosts there.«  _ Grandpa Edward _ always tried to frighten anyone with ghost stories, and for the most part he succeeded even. 

»And what did you say?« Altaїr inquired with raised brows and a furrowed forehead, even though he did not quite know if he really wanted to hear the answer. This seemed to be another typical trait of an Aries, as Rebecca had helpfully supplied him during the last months: Aries people tended to be very straight forward and that was true for Connor at least.

»I told him that you could handle yourself quite fine.« His cousin smirked, but only paused for a second before he continued. »I told him that you were fine with being alone for a while and that you would have plenty of things to do on your own.«

Altaїr lowered his gaze down on his mug for a moment and watched in awe how the steam coming from the scalding liquid formed the most intriguing little patterns as it ascended into the air. He was not fond of many people, but he was able to drown out the noise around them, the chatting students sitting at the little tables that were strewn all over the place. He was perfectly able to ignore the loud, almost frantic typing on mechanical keyboards all around them as desperate students tried to get their assignments done and the giggling and laughter from the group of girls near the door. He only tried to concentrate on the smell of the hot chocolate in front of him, Connor's coffee, the fresh coffee beans by the counter, the warmth around them and his cousin. He was aware, that Connor was not happy that he had needed to lie to his grandpa.

»Well, I mean I have accomplished quite a lot-« He started, but Connor interrupted him as he suddenly pinched his nose to draw back Altaїr's attention and make his eyes shot up to stare at his cousin instead. He did not seem angry and usually one was able to tell when Connor was angry. Apparently just another Aries typical trait.

»Needless to say that he did not believe me.« Connor scoffed. »I told him that you wanted to stay away from other people as much as possible after that incident at the party before Christmas. He asked what that incident was and-«

»You didn't tell him, did you?« Altaїr felt his heart hammering heavily against his ribcage in a sorry attempt of breaking free from his sorry body. Cold sweat was already forming on his forehead by the mere thought of his family knowing the full story. He could hardly stand the mental image his mind immediately supplied him with. He knew how it felt to be shunned and he did not want to experience it yet another time. He could live with being gay in secret and to stay inside the closet forever, as long as he would not need to experience something like that ever again.

»Of course not.« Connor sighed and for a moment he almost looked hurt that Altaїr thought him capable of such level of betrayal. »It's not on me to out you, Altaїr. Though I still do not understand why you won’t do it. My family is not like your uncle, you know? Gramps doesn't care and Dad only cares about his company anyway.«

The hot chocolate was all but forgotten as Altaїr felt how his stomach started to twist and tighten around itself while his mouth started to form a thin straight line over his face. He could feel the scar that was going through the right corner of his mouth moving ever so slightly in the process. It was easy to say something like that for someone like Connor. »It's not that easy.« He managed to get out after a while, although he knew that Connor was not naive enough to really think it would be easy to come out to really anyone. Altaїr was not one of those people on campus screaming out their sexuality with every pore and fiber of their entire being to provoke, if anything at all. As the door opened with the small ring of a bell, Altaїr was glad to turn his attention towards the group that was entering the café. Arno and his three friends brushed a little bit of freshly fallen snow from their jackets, as Fin, a giant figure wearing a simple beige coat was already waving for the young red-haired girl behind the counter. 

Altaїr had always found great interest in just watching other people, and so he did now. Unlike Fin, Corbin was very much like Altaїr. He was much more introverted and quiet and so he took it upon himself to grab the coats of his friends after he parted from his own green coat to put them away, while Ander and Arno walked up to the counter, probably still unsure what they wanted. Altaїr could hear them chat even from afar.

»I know that it's not easy.« Connor brushed his little insult at his intelligence off nonchalantly as he took as sip from his coffee and gestured towards Altaїr's mug, reminding him thusly to drink too before it would grow cold, instead of looking around and watching other people, which was not very polite anyway, as Connor would gladly remind him, if he would ask. No matter how much Connor always tried not to be like his father, he could not deny his very British upbringing. »But as well as I know that it's not easy for you to come out to the rest of your family, you know too that we, Ezio and I, as well as my family, only want to support you. But to support you, you need to trust us. Because, Altaїr, Ezio is right, you know? You can't carry on like this forever. We are not going to be here forever. Ezio soon graduates and then he will move on from here. Of course, we will always have your back, but we cannot linger around forever so that you have someone to hide behind.« Even though it was true what Connor said, he could not help but feel mildly offended anyway. »You are shy, yes, but you need to learn to stand up for yourself. This party only proves it. You cannot possibly keep burying your head in the sand only because you did something so horrendously stupid as to sleep with Malik Al-Sayf. It was a mistake, yes, and of course, he and his friends will go after you even more so than before, but this won't change as long as you will keep your head down and not say a thing or fight back.«

»I’m a Capricorn.«

It was already late as Altaїr finally left the photo lab again to walk back to his dorm. The moon stood high in the sky and the air was crisp and told of a new wave of snow coming towards Boston yet again, proving the little bit of snow blurry in the afternoon to be just a harbinger of the upcoming blizzard. Altaїr had always liked snow and winter in itself too. Of course, that was not that much of a surprise, he was, after all, born in January and his own birthday wasn't as far back now too. He enjoyed the biting cold air against his face, he enjoyed being able to draw in the crispy air into his lungs to feel them filled.

The path from the faculty to the dorm was only scarcely lit, but Altaїr, oddly enough, never had never been the type to feel anxious in the darkness, and he could not think of a reason to feel anxious anyway. As long as he was alone in the dark like he was now, at least there was no one who could pick on him or torment him in any way. Maybe, he wondered, he was a little over exaggerating the situation here at University. Maybe he was even enjoying feeling like a victim. Maybe he was just so used to that feeling, that it was hard to walk away from it even.

And yet he could not help but to let his thoughts meander back to that fateful Christmas party Ezio had dragged him to. His first run in with Malik Al-Sayf had not been a good one and ever since that day, Malik had never wasted an opportunity to pick on him or just stare at him across the room with the intent of murder written all over his devilishly handsome face, while Altaїr had nervously shoved his glasses up and glanced away. And yet, despite all this, it had been Malik who had walked up to him on that night at the party. It had been Malik who had offered him a drink and apologized for his behavior before. This entire thing, even their hook-up later that same night, had been initiated by Malik, not him!

However, skipping forward a few weeks and everything had gone back to normal again. Altaїr still did not have the slightest clue what was going on around him and why Malik was behaving as he did, but he most certainly started to lose hope that he would ever manage to look behind all of this and figure it out on his own without consulting a detective as grandiose as Sherlock Holmes himself.

As he rounded Harvard Memorial Church and as Canaday Hall A slowly came into sight, peeling it's general shape from the darkness around with lit up windows staring into the night like ghostly eyes in a horribly distorted grimace, Altaїr suddenly stopped. Despite the lingering darkness, he noticed a figure, standing underneath a street lamp. A small column of smoke left the mouth of the figure standing there and even though the bright light of the lamp shone directly down on the figure, it was hard to tell details about the person’s face at such a distance at first. Yet, Altaїr knew who was there standing in the darkness, smoking a cigarette, waiting.

Altaїr felt his feet resisting as if he was slowly wading through quicksand, as he tried to move forward, not willing to stay here forever in the coldness of this January night. It was true, unlike Connor and Ezio he very much despised conflict. He rather walked around conflicts and acted as if there was nothing to discuss or talk about. And yet he was not willing to stand here, waiting until Malik would maybe lose interest and walk off again. There was no reason why Malik should be where he was right now if it wasn't explicitly for him and Altaїr was not naive enough to believe that he wanted to apologize yet again. Of course, he could still walk back, circle the church and come towards the dorm from the other side, but that would be entirely too childish, even for his standards.

Though he knew all of this, he felt horribly unable to move. His whole body seemed to be resisting his every command and it took him probably entire minutes to coax his feet into motion yet again. Altaїr at least tried to school his expression into a more serious one as he started to move again, looking straight ahead, resisting the urge to do as much as glance at Malik as he came closer.

»Are you trying to ignore me now? For real?« He could not fail to notice the mocking sound of Malik’s deep, rumbling voice and felt shivers running down his spine.

He was proud of himself, as he managed to move ahead despite the dark rumbling of approaching thunder that was Malik's voice. »I am not.« He replied anyway as he walked past him.

»Why aren't you looking at me then?« Malik scoffed. »Are you that much of a pussy?«

Altaїr bit his tongue and kept walking, not willing to be forced into this game yet again. He did not get far, though, as Malik suddenly grabbed his left wrist in an iron clad grip, forcing Altaїr to stop despite his effort to get away from him. »Do not ignore me, Altaїr.« His voice was sharp and did not allow for protest or even as much as resistance on Altaїr's part. This time, the freshman did turn his face to look at Malik and the bit of courage that he had previously found buried deep inside his chest began to melt incredibly fast as he looked at Malik's face.  

Malik was taller than him, which was not at all that surprising, he was strong in build and attitude like a raging bull. Everyone who had seen him topless before would be able to testify that he was hiding a very fit, muscular body underneath his dark clothes, if not as muscular and big as Connor was. Malik's dark brown eyes looked almost black in the darkness around them and were entirely different from his brother’s bright blue eyes, not only by color but expression as well. He was wearing his black hair much shorter than Kadar did too, clean cut and yet long enough to look messy, his beard shaven into a stylish goatee which not many people around could pull off like he did. Malik's entire demeanor and posture never let room for the question of who was in charge at all times.

He was not a pleasant guy to be around at all, and although Altaїr always found himself wondering how and why he had fallen for exactly that guy, he knew entirely too well why that was.

Malik Al-Sayf was the sole opposite of himself. He was strong, and he possessed a certain sense of authority. He was intelligent, he was practical, he knew what he wanted and for the most important part he knew how to get what he wanted. Maybe a part of Altaїr even wanted to be like him. Maybe a part of him wished he could be more like Malik so that he would not get pushed around like a ragdoll by bullies like Malik all the time.

»I-I am not ignoring you.« Altaїr stuttered and wished he hadn't as he felt Malik’s dark glare on his face, burning into his skin even hotter than before as if fueled by Altaїr’s sorry attempt of an answer. Malik however did not falter or at least let go of Altaїr's wrist.

»You better not. I don't like being ignored, you know?«  _ I know _ , he wanted to spat. Malik had made this more than clear in the past six months!  _ Ignore him _ , Ezio had said.  _ Ignore him and he will lose interest _ . But all that ignoring him had managed to achieve was to make Malik even more angry.

»What do you want?« Altaїr finally managed to blurt out and this time without stuttering at all. Malik just smirked at this, baring his teeth as if to further intimidate Altaїr - as if this would be necessary even!

»Don't you know that?« Malik grinned, but before Altaїr could do a thing or even manage to blink an eye, Malik suddenly pulled him almost violently closer towards him with just one hand. Altaїr could feel how he lost his footing just a little on the slippery ground, almost falling against Malik's body, before the older student caught him, shoved his free, left hand in Altaїr's nape and dragged him unbearably close. As Malik's lips brushed his, Altaїr once more felt as if the ground would swallow him whole any second now.

 

 

**\- End of Chapter 2 -**


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